Friday, January 31, 2014

As many as 17,000 Americans will die directly as a result of states deciding not to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, according to a new study.
Researchers from Harvard University and City University of New York have estimated that between 7,115 and 17,104 deaths will be "attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states" in a study published in Health Affairs.

"The results were sobering," Samuel Dickman, one of the authors, said, according to the Morning Call. "Political decisions have consequences, some of them lethal."

"A black man is President, so people are going to be sentenced to death.
God Bless 'Murica!

Citizens, sure there's poison in your water, but it isn't poison from you know where, it's just poison in your drinking water. No need for concern.

Early Wednesday evening, the state Department of Health and Human Resources issued a statement that called Simonton's comments regarding formaldehyde "totally unfounded" and said his testimony "does not speak to the health and safety of West Virginians."
Dr. Letitia Tierney, commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, said Wednesday evening that the chemists the state had consulted with all said the formaldehyde could not have come from the MCHM.
"Our experts are all in agreement that it's unlikely that his findings are in any way related to the chemical spill," she said. "It's already in our environment."

I suppose one could grow rich indeed on calling out other countries issues while ignoring one's own -- but then there would be so much less to write about. And besides, blatant legal physical intimidation of gays and lesbians in America is so six months ago.*

On the eve of the Sochi Winter Games, more than 50 current and former Olympians have called on the Russian authorities to reconsider recently introduced anti-gay laws that forbid "gay propaganda" aimed at under-18s and that have led to a wave of homophobic attacks.
Some of the 52 Olympians, with dozens of medals between them and including 12 Sochi competitors, have also criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and multinational sponsors for not doing more to force Vladimir Putin's administration to scale back the legislation.

Of course, the IOC follows the money...and since Russia has the World Cup in 2018, FIFA hopes to hoover-up the rest -- without the messy details of human rights.

Meanwhile, Russia has its priorities right...it's illegal to be gay...but:

Russia continues to provide safe haven for the alleged Russian mafia boss accused of bribing judges at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, in one of the worst Olympic scandals ever.
Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov lives a life of luxury in Moscow despite an Interpol arrest warrant, known as a red notice.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

It started out like dozens of other interviews after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. But when NY1 reporter Mike Scotto decided to press Rep. Michael Grimm on his personal campaign finances, the Republican congressman abruptly ended the interview.
“This is only about the president’s speech, thank you,” Grimm says before walking off camera.

It’s certainly not the first time a politician has walked out during a live interview. But what happened next is shocking even to the most jaded observer.
After Stotto returns to his report, Rep. Grimm, a former FBI agent and Marine, suddenly storms back into the camera frame, whispering a threat to the reporter.
"I will break you in half," he says, reportedly threatening to throw the journalist over a balcony inside the U.S. Congress.

Although the audio is largely muted, NY1 employees say that Grimm said, "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this balcony.”

The GOP loves calling Barack Obama a thug...meanwhile, they actually LOVE thuggish behavior. This guy is going to be their newest star.

The last scandal of any note I recall in the Air Force (other than droning middle eastern weddings for which they are merely the tool) was the attempted evangelizing rampant at the Air Force Academy.
Which leads me to wonder whether that played any precipitating role in this:

The cheating scandal inside the Air Force's nuclear missile corps is expanding, with the number of service members implicated by investigators now roughly double the 34 reported just a week ago, officials said Tuesday.

That sounds kind of bad. How bad?

The Air Force announced on Jan. 15 that while it was investigating possible criminal drug use by some airmen, it discovered that one missile officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., had shared test questions with 16 other officers. It said another 17 admitted to knowing about this cheating but did not report it.

The Air Force has 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, on alert at all times, with a contingent of about 500 launch control officers, some number of which are unavailable on any given day due to illness or other reasons. So the number temporarily unavailable for duty because of the cheating scandal is substantial — about 14 percent of the total if the number of those who have been decertified is now double the original 34.

So all those rallies and courage taken on by many Egyptians, and supported by the West (for a while) have come full circle.
A Pete Townshend lyric come to life (and it isn't Squeeze Box):

Egypt's top military body has given its approval for armed forces chief Field Marshal Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to run for the presidency.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) said: "The people's trust in Sisi is a call that must be heeded as the free choice of the people."
Security sources say he will resign and announce his candidacy within days.
Field Marshal Sisi led the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi in July, following mass protests against him.

Strongmen love a full-circle, and so, apparently, do western governments.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has accomplished more than just corruption, oil-company options, opium money, and fiery death from the sky.

Nope, the hellscape that is, and has long been Afghanistan has managed to become even worse.

Huzzah!

Afghanistan is raising a stunted generation whose hobbled development could spell disaster for the country's feeble economy and undermine the impact of billions of dollars in aid poured into health, education and other areas.
More than half of Afghan girls and boys suffer damage to their minds and bodies that cannot be undone because they are poorly nourished in the crucial first two years of life, doctors and other experts say. The finding raises serious questions about the legacy of more than 10 years of western involvement in Afghanistan.

Hey, maybe we can turn it up a couple notches and export all our lead-based paint their too?

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A subsidiary of General Electric has agreed to pay $2.7 million to resolve claims its employees made false statements to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission about a reactor component.
The Justice Department announced the settlement Thursday with General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, a provider of nuclear energy products and services based in Wilmington, N.C.

Of course, GE, unlike Hitachi, doesn't make vibrators...but they do employ Joe Scarborough.

How dare Iran's government be reasonable and the like. Don't they know the career of three quarter of the nation's foreign policy talking heads and much of the Republican primaries depend on advocating making Tehran glow ironically...so as to avoid their getting nukes?

Iran's president has urged the rest of the world to stop treating his country as pariah state, and said a deal over its nuclear programme would pave the way for the oil-rich nation to become the next big emerging market.
In an olive branch to the international community, Hassan Rouhani told a packed conference hall at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he wanted to end the standoff with the west along with the sanctions that have crippled the economy. "Come and visit Iran to see the investment opportunities," he said.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

So much for "gay marriages" weakening other traditional marriages. It seems former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were able to engage in the even more traditional institution of graft bringing them even closer together as a couple...AND co-conspirators.

In 1944, in South Carolina, a fourteen year old black child had his life ended in this manner.

The youngest person to be executed in the US since the 19th century, the black teenager was a little over five feet tall, weighed 95lbs, and had to put a bible on the seat beneath him so that he could fit into the electric chair. His feet dangled some way above the floor.

He was executed 84 days after his trial ended. A trial which convicted him after lasting all of three hours and after an all-white jury determined after ten minutes he had bludgeoned two young white girls to death.

After all these years the young man's case, the case of George Stinney may be reopened, the scab removed after a seventy-year old lingering wound.

And now we come to a family member of the victims, who opposes reopening the case, but sums up attitudes towards past injustice in this country vividly.

Frankie Bailey Dyches said she believed Stinney had “got what he deserved” and that “justice was served, according to the laws in 1944”.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The never ending horrible behavior and embarrassment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church continues unabated.

Among the documents are relatively recent letters from Cardinal George to Norbert Maday, who is in prison serving a 20 year sentence, after being found guilty in 1994 for child sex abuse and threatening witnesse. He was informed by George in a letter written two years later that he would not be dismissed from the clerical state. "You have suffered enough by your present deprivation of ministry and your incarceration," George wrote.

Sexually abuse a child, remain a priest.

Advocate individual choice in reproduction -- you are not allowed to take part in communion.

I guess among the revelations in the Bob McDonnell indictments is that evangelical Republicans are diversifying their abuse portfolio's in the ol' Anti-Government campaign. In addition to kicking the poor because God has cursed them, you can use State employees as your donor's literal guinea pigs.

In August 2011, following an email from Bob McDonnell to Virginia's secretary of health, Maureen McDonnell met at the Executive Mansion with Williams and one of the secretary's senior policy advisors. At that meeting, according to the indictment, Williams discussed the idea of having Virginia government employees use Anatabloc, Star Scientific's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, "as a control group for research studies."

This sort of thing can keep you from getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A former Halliburton manager was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for destroying evidence in the aftermath of BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, had faced a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey. Badalamenti pleaded guilty in October to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence.
The 62-year-old also has to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine.
Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP's blown-out Macondo well.

And good luck keeping your lunch down as you think about the poor black kid doing 5-years for selling pot.

The judge said that the sentence of probation is "very reasonable in this case."
"I still feel that you're a very honorable man," he told Badalamenti. "I have no doubt that you've learned from this mistake."

Monday, January 20, 2014

The Russian-arranged media interview with Vlad Putin probably could have ended with a pause and then laughs all around when he stated this:

On corruption, Putin insisted there had been no systemic graft during the preparations for the Games, and said all allegations to the contrary were not backed up by solid facts...
Previously the official figure for spending on Sochi had been put at about $51bn (£31bn), four times the planned cost and more than either the London or Beijing summer Olympics. One critical report puts the corruption estimate at $30bn – a figure greater than the GDP of more than half the world's countries.

Or it could have ended in laughs when we learned the press corps' lazy handling of facts is universal:

The Chinese television reporter present told Putin he was very popular in China and suggested he should consider playing "tough guys" in action movies when he retired.

Or he could just move to Malibu and eventually run for governor of California. Cut out the middle-career.
But the laughable is determined to become the tragic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered new assurances to gay athletes and fans attending the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics next month. Yet he defended Russia's anti-gay law by equating gays with pedophiles and said Russia needs to "cleanse" itself of homosexuality if it wants to increase its birth rate.

Vlad Putin, on his way to becoming a FoxNews talking head, after all he believes in the power of myth...maybe paired with his old neighbor/peeper Sarah Palin?

A senior Italian IOC member criticized the United States on Wednesday for including openly gay athletes in its official delegation for next month's Sochi Olympics.
"It's absurd that a country like that sends four lesbians to Russia just to demonstrate that in their country gay rights have (been established)," Mario Pescante said at an Italian Olympic Committee meeting in Milan on Wednesday, in comments widely reported by Italian media. "The games should not be an occasion and a stage to promote rights that sports supports daily."

Yes, who ever heard of "politics" playing a role in the Olympics, standing up to bigotry?

Earlier this week the State of Ohio's decision to "experiment with death for profit...and FUN!" was discussed.
Well, today the full extent of the "fun" was unleashed to completely foreseeable and blithely ignored results.

A condemned Ohio inmate appeared to gasp several times and took more than 15 minutes to die Thursday as he was executed with a combination of drugs never before tried in the U.S.
Death row inmate Dennis McGuire made several loud snorting or snoring sounds during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Yes, Mr. McGuire was a convicted murderer and by general universal acclaim a horrible human being. But he was still a human being, and this pointless use of an untried method causing a prolonged and terrible death was even more pointless than usual.

On the other hand, for proponents of the death penalty it was a great form of erotica.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Yep...he actually said this with a straight, albeit tanned and pickled, face.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday said that lawmakers and the media should move past the controversy surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last year, noting that the governor has "held people accountable."
"It's time to move on," he said during a Thursday press conference. "I think the governor made clear that mistakes were made."

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Monday said that the recent controversies involving MSNBC hosts Martin Bashir, Alec Baldwin and Melissa Harris-Perry hurt the network's brand.
"I think all of those things combined affect the brand over time and the cumulative effect takes its toll," he said in an interview with TV Guide.

After Michael Eisenga, a wealthy GOP donor and Wisconsin business owner, failed to convince several courts to lower his child support payments, he came up with an inventive plan B—he recruited a Republican state legislator to rewrite Wisconsin law in his favor.
A set of documents unearthed Saturday by the Wisconsin State Journal shows Eisenga and his lawyer, William Smiley, supplying detailed instructions to Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch on how to word legislation capping child support payments from the wealthy. Kleefisch began work on the legislation last fall, weeks after an appeals court rejected Eisenga's attempts to lower his child support payments.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

West Virginia emergency planners never put together any strategy for dealing with spills of a toxic chemical from the Freedom Industries' tank farm, despite the facility's location just 1.5 miles upstream from a drinking water intake serving 300,000 people, officials acknowledged this morning.
Local emergency official likewise didn't act to prepare for such an incident, even though they had been warned for years about storage of toxic chemicals so close to the West Virginia American Water plant serving the Kanawha Valley and surrounding region.
"That's just something that's kind of fallen by the wayside," said Larry Zuspan, administrator of the Kanawha-Putnam Emergency Planning Committee.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

On Thursday, the state of Ohio is scheduled to inject Dennis McGuire, 53, with two drugs: first, the sedative midazolam; then, the painkiller hydromorphone. When it is over, McGuire, who was convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of Joy Stewart, will be dead – which is Ohio’s goal. But the procedure is untried and untested; the drugs that the state will employ have never been used in a death chamber. And experts have warned in legal proceedings that if the process goes wrong, McGuire will not just peacefully drift away, but will be awake, struggling and failing to pull enough air into his lungs, until the drug overdose that will kill him takes hold.

Mr. McGuire, of course, is obviously a horrible human being, so naturally few people will care -- who is cared for less in this country than people on death row? (sadly you could probably still make a list).
"Experimenting" with ways to kill people has an awful Josef Mengele quality to it.
If this doesn't work, maybe we'll next try the Kim Jong Un method.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Brit Hume: Well, I would have to say that in this sort of feminized atmosphere in which we exist today, guys who are masculine and muscular like that in their private conduct, kind of old fashion tough guys, run some risk.

Lauren Ashburn: Feminized?

Kurtz: Feminized.
Hume: Atmosphere.

Kurtz: By which you mean?
Hume: By which I mean that men today have learned the lesson the hard way that if you act like a kind of an old fashioned guy's guy, you're in constant danger of slipping out and saying something that's going to get you in trouble and make you look like a sexist or make you look like you seem thuggish or whatever. That's the atmosphere in which he operates. This guy is very much an old fashioned masculine, muscular guy, and there are political risks associated with that. Maybe it shouldn't be, but that's how it is.

Not to engage in easy fat jokes...(but to engage in easy fat jokes)...Chris Christie can be described many, many, many ways. But muscular is certainly not one of them.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Residents of nine counties in West Virginia have been told not to use
or drink their water after a chemical used by the coal industry spilled
into the Elk River on Thursday. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency as more than 100,000 customers, or 300,000 people, are without safe drinking water.

“Don’t make baby formula,” said West Virginia American Water Company
president Jeff McIntyre. “Don’t brush your teeth. Don’t shower. Toilet
flushing only.”

First responders were delayed in responding to at least four medical emergencies due to the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September that have been linked to one of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) political feuds.
The delays were detailed in a letter from EMS coordinator Paul Favia to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. It was obtained by the Bergen Record and dated Sept. 10, the second day Fort Lee was consumed by gridlock due to the lane closures.
In one instance, it took EMS workers seven minutes to get to a 91-year-old woman who was unconscious and eventually died of cardiac arrest at a hospital.

I know from first hand experience over the last twenty-plus years, it is very very hard to sue the government -- BUT I think we might have a good reason if you are the family of someone who needed an ambulance in this area on September 10th.

I'm relatively confident you'd have a shot at getting over the usual level of qualified immunities.

Syria has started moving chemical weapons materials out of the country in a crucial phase of an internationally backed disarmament program that has been delayed by war and technical problems.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said on Tuesday that "priority chemical materials" were transported to the port of Latakia and onto a Danish vessel which was now sailing towards international waters.

Well, if nothing else Liz Cheney's life will have renewed purpose, as other people must die to avenge her political career.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

The prolonged civil-war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and been the source of surely valid claims of genocide.

Nevertheless, both sides have reached a consensus -- oh not that they'll stop killing each other, that's clearly too much to ask for -- rather, one that Dick Cheney could love with all his donated heart.

Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to consider setting up a joint force to protect vital oilfields during the ongoing crisis in the South, Sudan's foreign minister has said.

Well thank goodness they are considering that as a start, I mean at least they can still shoot at each other in so many other places than oil-fields. Like schools and hospitals and other lesser places.

Monday, January 06, 2014

Minus a dozen this morning. The kind of morning that makes me remember when I was 7 and we moved to a Minnesota town and our first day in the new house was delayed because the movers needing to leave the garage door open ended up freezing the pipes. It was merely January and it was merely -31 Fahrenheit...not windchill...straight air temperature.

It's a day so cold that we flip the script on our retired parents in Arizona and say, "Guess what it was less than 10 below today, but we're alive and all your friends are dying...WHOSE LIVIN' NOW?!"

The secret to really cold weather in the Midwest is that it is usually (not always) accompanied by little to no wind. So while it is cold, it is survivable in small batches.

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Action-movie star Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV (http://goo.gl/jNxPSd) that
he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a
talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly
released reality series "Steven Seagal - Lawman: Maricopa County."

Dogged by bad polling, controversies with Wyoming Republicans and a
public feud with her sister over the legitimacy of her sister's same-sex
marriage, would-be Senator Liza Cheney has decided to drop her longshot
primary challenge to Wyoming Sen. Rick Enzi, according to CNN.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Are gonna be kind of boring this year. After all, I don't need to lose weight anymore.

Now I just have to keep it off.

I am still walking...for those of you who still read this blog for the same reason I still write it (nothin' else to do...) after about 11 months (not quite) I've gone from surprisingly healthy but really fat dumbass to pretty healthy and surprisingly slim dumbass (as for amount let's just say I'm about half the man I used to be).

Perhaps the last descriptive remains the pertinent one, still a dumbass.

That may be a harder resolution to change...but I could be a complete dumbass and just make up right-wing bullshit, deny evolution, and just swallow FoxNews bullshit.

We’ve heard people give lots of reasons for opposing Obamacare. But
until a reader sent us some Internet links recently, we hadn’t realized
that one of the fears being spawned by Obamacare was that it could usher
in legal beheadings across America.

Such is the constant stream of bullshit, I cannot even claim this ranks high amongst the dumbest and most patently bullshit on the list. After all, they still try to con their gullible sheep with the 'born in Kenya' story.

Last year, despite the efforts of Wendy Davis to filibuster it away, Texas passed laws that with substantial medical requirements that made most clinics in the State providing abortion services close.

For example, the Whole Woman's Health in McAllen, Texas had to cease operations.
But there is still a place claiming to cater to women's health issues in McAllen...

A McAllen Pregnancy Center counselor reached by phone told Al Jazeera that the center does not employ a doctor because the ultrasounds it conducts aren’t for diagnostic purposes but for “seeing the baby.” Medical experts, like the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the ACOG, take a dim view of such practices. They warn that women could be falsely reassured about their health or that of their fetus, and if abnormalities are discovered, there’s no guarantee that pregnant women will receive the follow-up care they need.

Though it might not be obvious to Betsy that she isn’t receiving medical treatment, the McAllen Pregnancy Center isn’t behaving like a rogue operator. Unlike abortion clinics, sandwich shops and nail salons, crisis-pregnancy centers in Texas don’t have to comply with state or federal safety standards. The state health department does not inspect the clinics, not even the ones that offer ultrasounds and call themselves pregnancy medical clinics.

Sounds totally fair...in a Rick Perry fashion doesn't it?

Meanwhile, if you live in McAllen and still want to exercise your rights? Enjoy your "bonus" six-hour round trip drive.

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Prepare to have your American Bishops and the media ignore the bulk of this that did not refer to abortion.

Pope Francis made an impassioned New Year's peace address on Wednesday, saying the heart of humanity seemed to have gone astray and too many people were still indifferent to war, violence and injustice.
The pontiff, who took his papal name from St Francis of Assisi, the saint most associated with peace, urged the world to listen to the "cry for peace" from suffering peoples.
"What on earth is happening in the hearts of men? What on earth is happening in the heart of humanity?" he said to tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square on the day the Roman Catholic Church celebrates its World Day of Peace.

And then Cardinal Dolan promptly condemned gay marriage.

And our political leadership nodded their heads in contemplation and ordered a drone-strike.